How I Came to Admire Hamlet
A personal account of coming to admire Hamlet—not only as a great tragedy, but as a work whose language, thought and dramatic power remain alive.
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Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit has been called a masterpiece among masterpieces by G.B.Shaw. Like many of Dickens’ novels this too is a London novel; the metropolis in which Dickens locates his characters. The urbane, aristocratic, well –to-do citizens of this city in contrast to the struggling impoverished folk from the poorer sections gives an ambience and canvas…
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Leonardo da Vinci — The Resurrection of the Gods
Leonardo Da Vinci – The Resurrection of the Gods is an astounding work. Like Dostoyevsky, here is the author setting the dialectic of the God and the Devil against one another. Whether sinful pride in your adoration of God is a mark of the devil itself? Are knowledge and truth, the devotion of the scientist…
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Dan Fesperman’s ‘Lie in the Dark’
A detective thriller or a cop novel which delineates the critical investigative process is thoroughly satisfying but when the narrative is also sharp and sensitive to the aspects of life entwined in a murder, the novel becomes a spectacular achievement. Vlado is the Inspector of Police who is entrusted the sensitive case of investigating the…
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Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind is a classic. There are only a few novels which define the ethos of a Nation. They are so definitive or detailed that they become referential points about a period or an era in the history of that Nation. The half truths or generalizations of their narrative does not dilute the…
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Bleak House
Bleak House heralds the prowess of Charles Dickens at his highest point. Woven around a lawsuit named Jarndyce Vs Jarndyce, the novel bears the distinctive stamp of the novelist, especially his powers of observation and characterization. The range of people who are present in a Dickens novel, makes him no less than a social historian…
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Papillon by Henri Charrière.
Reflecting on the “Popular novels” that I have read, I have identified a few novels which need a special mention. Papillon by Henri Charrière. A modern day classic, it is described as a man’s quest for freedom. It has also been described as the greatest adventure story ever written but I would rank the Count…
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Vanity Fair
A reflection on Thackeray’s world of ambition, appearance and moral compromise, and on the unforgettable contradictions of Becky Sharp.
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Narrative Style: Kafka, Kundera and Beckett
Kafka, Kundera and Beckett become points of departure for thinking about narrative, memory, time, uncertainty and the modern human predicament.
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The Innocents Abroad
The great American novelist Mark Twain who has written two of my favorite novels; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has also written ‘ The Innocents Abroad’ which is a travelogue detailing his travels in Europe. The novels have fascinated me endlessly. Tom Sawyer’s life of adventure and Huckleberry Finn’s…
